In designing the house I'm going to build, I'm interested in using quality components, so I don't have to keep fixing things. It seems like PEX is the way to go for the supply side of the plumbing system. I was just wondering what the real-world experiences have been so far. I'm also wondering how many home runs to have- should I have all the cold water fixtures for the bathroom on one supply, or have every fixture separate? Even though it's a small house, those add up to a lot of runs. I get 11 colds and 8 hots, not including outdoor hose bibs, a supply to the barn, and possible additional bathroom(s) in the unfinished upstairs and basement. I don't really mind running the other tubing, but what about manifolds? The biggest I've seen is 10 of each- not enough unless I had two manifolds? It would seem to me that one hot and one cold would be adequate for a bathroom, for example. Or is there another way to look at it?

My bathroom sink often drains water very slowly. I used Liquid Plumber several times. That did not really do much. Sometimes the water speeds up. I recall in a prior home I could remove the sink stopper and when that was pulled out it had a big hunk of hair. I can't remove this more modern stopper I have now, it does not seem to unscrew. Would not the several uses of Liquid Plumber have melted the hair anyway if that were the issue? Could something else be the problem with a sink that is usually slow but sometime ok? The tub and toilet have no problems.